4/10
Breakfast: grande cappucino, banana bread
Lunch: tostada salad, without tostada, beans, cheese or sour cream. With steak and guacamole.
Snack: cake
Dinner: great Costco rib festival. This was an example of the bacon, butter and beer version of the Zone diet (an example of how people might misinterpret the Zone diet given at the cert)... ribs and beer for dinner.
4/9
Breakfast: 3 hard boiled eggs, banana, grapefruit, pecans
Lunch: salmon, cauliflower, broccoli, pecans
Dinner: Stone Korean Kitchen - assortment of things, mostly meat, a bit of rice and other non-paleo stuff. Good restaurant.
Turned down chocolate cake and ice cream today on separate occasions. Honestly didn't sound good - so weird.
4/8
Breakfast: back to latte and pecans. Not sure why, but this works great for me.
Lunch: baked pork with apples, mandarin and pluot. 2 mini cucumbers, 6 mini tomotoes.
Snack: 1/2 piece of lemon cake
Dinner: salmon, cauliflower, broccoli, homemade hummus
4/7
Breakfast: americano and a pear (had planned to drink a protein shake of protein powder and water, but I hate that, so decided not to drink it after all - back to eggs or oatmeal tomorrow)
Snack: grapefruit
Lunch: pork bakes with apples, pluot and mandarins. Also 6 mini tomatoes, 2 mini cucumbers and a few mini carrots.
Dinner: chipotle salad with chicken - no beans, cheese or sour cream, plus fajita veggies and guacamole.
4/6
Breakfast: 3 hard boiled eggs, plum, small pear, pecans, americano
Lunch: turkey moussaka - ground turkey, eggplant, tomatoes, onions
Snack: clif bar
Dinner: pork tenderloin with apples, pluots and mandarins
I'd like to post a summary of my progress to date because yesterday I hit my goal weight of 165. When I came to the gym for my baseline session in December I weighed 178 and had hit a weightloss plateau after losing nearly 20 pounds in the prior year following my retirement as a hammer thrower. So, to be honest I was feeling pretty good about my weight and diet, felt that I had the necessary tools to lose weight on my own, and wanted to try CrossFit because I was lacking discipline to work out - I thought weight loss would be purely a result of increased activity (even though as a hammer thrower working out 3 hours per day at minimum I tended to gain weight when I worked out more). I even planned to ignore the nutritional advice offered at LaLanne Fitness because I thought it sounded extreme, unsustainable, and even a little crazy (sorry - but I've already posted my weight online... if you haven't figured it out yet this is going to be a candid post).
Before I continue in the present I want to share some of my past. I have a history of eating disorders, but have been healthy for several years, so I've been terrified to even approach the word "diet" at risk of a relapse. In fact, the real reason I became a thrower in college was because I was too sick and miserable to have any future as a jumper. At least in throwing my weight didn't matter (and excess weight could arguably be considered a good thing). I have a family history of extreme obesity (although my parents are the exception) and I believed that without an unhealthy combination of starving myself and other dangerous methods, I would be on a death march to follow my family's body type. So, without knowing what else to do I surrendered to eating disorders and put myself in extreme danger because I thought getting fat would be worse and I believed I had no alternative (for reference, I weighed 165 and believed that my weight was hurting my athletic performance, even though I was getting offered athletic scholarships, when my eating disorders started).
At some point (while I was on the track team at Stanford) - when I got so scared that I was literally going to die from the eating disorders - I wised up and realized that getting fat would be less bad than dying, so I decided to surrender to getting fat. At my peak I weighed 198 (at 5'11" and 20 years old), so I was never terribly obese (and probably most people wouldn't have called me fat), but I was certainly overweight. I also had a pretty serious muscle mass at that point because I had become a hammer thrower. Thankfully I did achieve a full recovery from the eating disorders, but the fear of a relapse stayed with me. I was afraid to monitor my eating habits too closely for fear of falling back into the restrictive habits that caused my problems in the first place.
At 178 in December 2009 I was approximately 25% body fat based on skin-fold measurements. My eating habits were "fine" - I pretty much avoided processed foods and grains, but feared keeping track of my eating habits beyond general guidelines. I decided 18% would be a good body fat goal (believing based on my genetics that even 18% would probably be impossible to reach). 18% represents 165 for me, and yesterday I reached that point.
Those numbers are so secondary to this though: I weigh the same as I did when my eating disorders started almost 10 years ago. My lean mass is about 13 pounds more. My mind is completely healthy as it relates to food (other mental disorders, we can't be sure! ). I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner nearly every day (and when I don't I'm literally mad at myself, rather than proud, as I used to be). Most days I even eat a snack. I eat fat, fruit, veggies, meat, as little dairy as I can, and I occasionally treat myself to some french fries or a dessert, but when I do I enjoy it and choose not to feel guilty because I believe that my overall habits should be my focal point. I can't speak for whether this would work for anyone other than myself (although I know I'm not the only one this works for), but I can tell you that by sticking as closely as I can to the Paleo diet, despite my genetics, despite my fear of keeping track of food, I have finally reached my true goal of being proud of my body (the only time in my memory that I remember being able to honestly say that). I hope I've been able to communicate how much I consider that to be a miracle.
I am more than happy to talk about any of this if anyone has actually read this novel. I share this because I hope that my experiences can help someone else, and because I am tremendously grateful.
4/5
Breakfast: oatmeal with flax seed, protein powder, pecans and berries (trying something new bc so far I think paleo breakfast is really hard. Oatmeal is not paleo, but I'm hoping it is something I can eat regularly rather than skipping breakfast, "eating" only a latte, or ultimately failing for the day... we'll see.)
Lunch: roasted chicken with carrots and salad - cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, a couple olives
Dinner: turkey moussaka - ground turkey, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, olive oil, spices
4/4
Breakfast: banana, walnuts, americano
Lunch: omelet with pulled pork, jalapenos, not sure what else plus a few pieces of cantaloupe, honeydew and pineapple
Snack: a few cashews and a bite of a lara bar
Dinner: roasted chicken and carrots, salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and red bell peppers
Snack: fat free yogurt
4/3
Breakfast: grande cappucino
Lunch: cobb salad - no dressing, didn't eat much of the bacon.
Dinner: beef stew with beef, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms. Then lots of walnuts.
Today was way to end-of-the-day loaded in part due to the cert. Planning to do better on breakfast tomorrow.
3/31
Breakfast: berries and yogurt, black coffee
Snack: scrambled eggs w/ roasted veggies
Another snack: clif bar (for some reason I'm SO HUNGRY this morning)
Lunch: was supposed to have beef stew from yesterday, but coworkers wanted to go to Indian restaurant... so, at buffet, chicken tikka masala, lamb dish, spinach dish, cauliflower. No rice or naan.
Snack: americano
Dinner: same stew as yesterday.
Snack: 8 oz milk, pickles and 3 mini tomatoes. I wish milk and pickles were Paleo.
3/25
Breakfast: mini quiche, banana
Lunch: chicken breast, bell pepper, 2 mini cucumbers, 6 mini tomatoes, pecans
Snack: apple croissant
Dinner: salmon, steamed broccoli and almonds
). I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner nearly every day (and when I don't I'm literally mad at myself, rather than proud, as I used to be). Most days I even eat a snack. I eat fat, fruit, veggies, meat, as little dairy as I can, and I occasionally treat myself to some french fries or a dessert, but when I do I enjoy it and choose not to feel guilty because I believe that my overall habits should be my focal point. I can't speak for whether this would work for anyone other than myself (although I know I'm not the only one this works for), but I can tell you that by sticking as closely as I can to the Paleo diet, despite my genetics, despite my fear of keeping track of food, I have finally reached my true goal of being proud of my body (the only time in my memory that I remember being able to honestly say that). I hope I've been able to communicate how much I consider that to be a miracle.